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A hyperbranched polymer-based water-resistant adhesive: Durable underwater adhesion and primer for anchoring anti-fouling hydrogel coating

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Abstract

Direct deployment of gluing and achieving durable robust adhesion in water is challenging due to difficulty in repelling interface water. This work reports a novel hyperbranched polymer-based water-resistant adhesive (HBPBA) based on Michael addition reaction of multi-vinyl monomers with dopamine and 3-aminophenylboronic acid. Upon encountering water, the HBPBA forms coacervates whose hydrophobic chains aggregate to displace interface water, and meanwhile the catechols exposing outwards contribute to underwater adhesion. The HBPBA can strongly glue diverse substrates including PTFE, PE, PET, ceramic, Ti and stainless steel. The HBPBA can maintain stable adhesion in different environments, such as tap water, simulated sea water, PBS, and a wide range of pH solutions (pH 2 to 10) for 3 months, supposedly due to the complexation of catechol with boronic acid. Intriguingly, HBPBA film can be bonded to the titanium surface as a primer, which firmly anchors the antifouling PNAGA-PCBAA hydrogel coating through copolymerization of remaining double bonds in HBPBA and NAGA plus CBAA. The PNAGA-PCBAA hydrogel-modified titanium is biocompatible and shows outstanding antifouling ability both in vitro and in vivo. This work proposes a new strategy for creating underwater deployable and water-resistant adhesives that may find promising applications in engineering and biomedical fields.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, China

    YaHan Zhang, ChunYan Cui, YaGe Sun, XiaoPing Zhang, Rong Yang, JianHai Yang & WenGuang Liu

  2. Shandong Zhushi Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., Heze, 274300, China

    Fei Xie

Authors
  1. YaHan Zhang
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  2. ChunYan Cui
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  3. YaGe Sun
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  4. XiaoPing Zhang
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  5. Rong Yang
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  6. JianHai Yang
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  7. Fei Xie
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  8. WenGuang Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to WenGuang Liu.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2018YFA0703100), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51733006).

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The supporting information is available online at https://tech.scichina.com and https://link.springer.com. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Zhang, Y., Cui, C., Sun, Y. et al. A hyperbranched polymer-based water-resistant adhesive: Durable underwater adhesion and primer for anchoring anti-fouling hydrogel coating. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 65, 201–213 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-021-1850-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-021-1850-7

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